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After three years of intense focus on therapy and personal growth, I'm finally hitting the keys again and will be jumping into NaNoWriMo on November 1st, 2016. Stay tuned for updates!

Tuesday, 25 December 2012

IGNORANCE - Old Trout Puppet Workshop

This week is a hard week to choose a
topic because there have actually been so many.
I feel like I may be compelled to do multiple entries and get myself
through the holiday season.

Tonight, it will be the production
of Ignorance by The Old Trout Puppet Workshop. It was a beautiful production that really did
give perspective into my own writing. It
was in your face, simple and complicated at the same time. Most of all, it fit within the mandate of the
theatre company I’ve been trying to develop, which in a way is the best way
something can be inspirational for me right now.

It was a show that played to its
audience. It didn’t simplify concepts or
ideas or play to the least of the masses, but was easily accessible;
brilliantly designed, written and performed; and presented in an interesting
and entertaining fashion. Never did I
feel like I was being preached to; but the message came through loud and clear:
each of us is in charge of our own
happiness and we need to make the best of whatever shit we are given in this
lifetime.

This may be extremely poignant at
this point in my life because over the past 2 weeks, I have made great strides to
achieving a dream I have had for quite some time: start my own theatre company with
my closest friends. The difference: I
decided to start making the moves to make this happen and was no longer willing
to compromise that dream. Then,
suddenly, the dream started coming to me.
I had to continue pushing people in the direction; but, because I had a
vision clearer than those around me, people seemed more inclined to jump
aboard.

I have finally made the decision to
stop compromising the things that make me happy and the result is that I am
happy most of the time. It is a strange
phenomenon that I wish I had discovered much earlier in life; but, that which
I’m grateful for discovering now.

Ignorance
has also made me start considering the fact that in a much shorter time than I
can anticipate, I will be middle-aged.
Though, in theory, “middle-aged” is still relatively young, it is an unsettling
concept for someone just adjusting (reasonably well) to being in their
30s. I’m quite content with where my
life is currently, but it will take a lot of focus and planning to keep it on
track. Not having been a stranger to
heart ache and broken dreams, I know how quickly dreams can get sidelined. Over the past 2 ½ years, I have changed
careers, relationships and homes; even my family has drastically changed. Since I have finally found a path that seems
to be leading where I would like to go, it is wholly up to me to make sure I
remain on it and not get distracted by shining things along the side of the
road.

I need to start planning for an
exciting and happy future. I don’t want
to look back at 38 and say, “Whoa! My
life needs an extreme makeover!” Those
are not happy times. So, I need to begin
today to build the future I want tomorrow.
Heavy task! But, the thing is:
you take one day at a time and work to make today better than yesterday and
tomorrow better than today, and you can’t go wrong.

From watching this show, the thing
that gave me the most hope that I may be on the right path was the moment that
they turned all the lights out and made the audience imagine that that
particular moment was the best moment of their life. When the show resumed; the narrator had a
monologue about how most were thinking about things that could have made that
moment better and as a people we constantly desire more: that is what makes us
human; but what we really need to do is appreciate each moment because it is
actually the best moment of our lives and we can continually look forward to
the next because it will be better.

This is a concept I have been trying
to hold onto for quite some time now. In
fact, each day, my phone sends me a message at 8am saying: Welcome to the best
day of your life! It’s a nice way to
wake up. I switched phones in August and
had not programmed the new phone to send me this message: I missed it. I started to notice that I was feeling down
and low far more often and I was perplexed as to the cause. I started to wonder if it was because my
mornings were no longer greeted by this message; so I started it again and to
my surprise: it helped! A lot! I don’t necessarily read the message in full
each morning; but I see it and have to dismiss it, so I know it is there. Subconsciously, I see it and it makes a
difference in my day. It truly is
amazing what changing your attitude can do.

Anyhoo, I’m not sure when or where Ignorance will be playing next; but if
you ever get a chance to see it: please do!!!
A: You will have a hilarious time.
B: It is only 75 minutes. C: It says something (without beating you over
the head!) What more could you ask for
in a night of theatre?!

The last thing I would like to
mention about this show. The mission of
the theatre company I am developing is focused on creating theatre that appeals
to younger audiences (aka young adults).
Young adults don’t go to the theatre like our parents’ generation (and
they don’t go like their parents’ generation).
We are the kids of TV, movies, the internet and video games. Why do we want to leave our living room? Theatre companies need to adapt to make it
appealing to the next generation. Ignorance was an example of a show that
did this. I looked around the audience
tonight and was delighted to see just as many young people as I did “blue
hairs” (please excuse the derogatory term for the aged; but it is usually a
justified stereotype in theatre but that is a rant for another time). I was so impressed. Young people at the theatre on a Saturday
night: so I tried to pay close attention to the show to consider why it was
such a draw of youth.

My conclusion: it was funny, it used puppets, it didn’t take
itself too seriously, and it didn’t pander to its audience. It treated them as educated people and dealt
with issues that are important in their lives.
It’s as simple as that: make it relevant and people will come!

If you would like more information
on Ignorance and The Old Trout Puppet
Workshop you can find it at:

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Welcome to Art Thief!

After a few failed attempts at creating "themed story" blogs, I have been inspired to create a blog with the true intention of the format: a simple web log of my inspirations as a writer and artist.

This blog is dedicated to Austin Kleon, whose book Steal Like an Artist, has been my primary inspiration.

In this book, Kleon discusses how all art is stolen in some way and a good artist knows what is worth stealing. As artists, we cannot fool ourselves into thinking that everything we create is original. We all draw our inspiration from many sources and we steal little gems from each one to develop our own body of work. Kleon's book outlines simple practices to ensure that you keep your art alive; one being: SHARE YOUR WORK.

Thief Profile

Good thieves never reveal their identity... although, good thieves don't likely advertise their plunders to the rest of the world either.

Art Thief, aka AJ, keeps her home in Toronto, Canada; though work often pulls her to every corner of the globe.

AJ is a writer and teacher disguised as a mild mannered stage manager. She loves working in theatre and being able to surround herself with some of the best artists in the industry (while plotting to take over the world with her own work). As a stage manager, AJ is constantly immersed in all forms of art. Talk about inspiration overload! The number of stories and characters that fill each day is more than any writer could ask. The goal now: keep up!

AJ is working on a lot of projects in 2013, including: the first full length run of her play, Empty Boxes; and the launch of Homestead Theatre Project. Stay tuned in the Happenings section of this blog for details.